Yukio Hatoyama

Yukio Hatoyama (11 February 1947-) was Prime Minister of Japan from 16 September 2009 to 8 June 2010, succeeding Taro Aso and preceding Naoto Kan. He was a member of the Democratic Party of Japan.

Biography
Yukio Hatoyama was born in Tokyo, Japan on 11 February 1947 to a political family; his father was Foreign Minister Iichiro Hatoyama, and grandfather Ichiro Hatoyama had also served as Prime Minister. Yukio graduated from the University of Tokyo, Stanford University, and the City University of Hong Kong, and he was elected to the National Diet in 1986 as the representative from Hokkaido's 9th district; he served as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan. He switched to the New Party Sakigake in 1993 and then to the Democratic Party of Japan in 1998, and he became the DPJ's president in 2009. He led the party to victory in the August 2009 general election, defeating the long-governing Liberal Democratic Party of Japan. In 2010, after he broke his campaign promise to remove the US Marine Corps from its base on Okinawa (he decided to let them stay after a South Korean ship was sunk by North Korea), Hatoyama decided to resign, and Naoto Kan succeeded him as Prime Minister.